My little cloud and me

When I tell people what I study, a lot of them ask me what PR is. 

No, I am not queuing up after the hundreds of thousands of scholars and practitioners who looked for an all-embracing, globally applicable definition of Relations (Spoiler: They haven't found it yet). But, if you want to know, I will recommend you my friend Susanna's blog, who recently wrote about defining PR.

I want to tell you why I want to work in PR, what - in my opinion - you need in that industry and what it is for me. And because it is all about visualisation nowadays, I will do that with the help of my little word cloud I created:

created with Wordle

So, what is PR then (no, still not a definition, rather an outline)? Back then, I used to associate PR mostly with Press Releases and Press Conferences, but I have now realized that it is so much more than that! Public Relations is a serious and important profession. A practitioner is not just someone who likes to annoy Journalists. 

I want to be a PR practicioner, because I think it is the perfect job to apply my Creativity, Communicating and Digital Skills. You need to be Outgoing as there's a hell lot of Networking to do to be successful. The good thing is, I am really good at that and I realize that, especially since I've been living in Southampton, I am improving more and more. I am being quite realistic knowing that I will probably Work my a** (sorry) off to meet all the nice Deadlines.

Still, I think it is a great business and so Fast Moving you can shine with your Flexibility! Nowadays, it is not only sending your Message to the Media with the hope to be in the News tomorrow. You have so many more Channels to reach your Audiences! Just look at all the different Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn! It is not just Writing messages for your Stakeholders, it is Developing Relationships, managing and marketing your Content, and that all with a clear Structure.

Last, but not least, Research has shown that PR is the best industry to work in. Just kidding, but I needed to place 'research' somewhere...

Speaking of National holidays...

Today is the 3rd of October which is the national holiday in Germany. Living in England, I wondered about the English holiday. I googled it to find out that England actually doesn't have an official national holiday, but I'll come to that (speaking of weird national days).

So I decided to do some research on national holidays around the world.

It's all about independence

According to this list of national holidays, 116 countries celebrate the "Independence Day". That is very creative, isn't it?

You keep forgetting birthdays?

Then England is your country! Though it doesn't have an official national holiday, the queen's birthday is being celebrated. But, wait, that's not truly correct. The Queen's Birthday is on 21st of April. The day which is being celebrated actually varies. It's being determined every year, mostly in May or June.
So if you could choose your own birthday, what day would that be?

Casual Friday holiday?

If you like the casual friday at work, you should think about moving to Bermuda. On 24th of May the country celebrates the Bermuda day, which is the first day local residents consider about going into the sea. It is also the first day Bermuda shorts are accepted as business attire.
That sounds like a dream!

International national day

Even the European Union as a union of 28 European countries has its own holiday, the Europe Day. But the fact that I have neither heard of it nor "celebrated" it (celebrating in terms of sleeping in and not going to work/uni) shows me that it is probably not that much of a holiday.
By the way, it's on 9th of May.

And again, the Queen!?

Gibraltar celebrates its National Holiday on the 10th of September. On that day in 1967 the country was to vote if it wanted to stay with Great Britain or be part of Spain. The result was indisputable: 12.138 vs. 44 votes. The 'Gibraltarians' seem to like the Queen!


Fun fact at the end: The 3rd of October wasn't actually the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Wall was opened on 9th of November in 1989, The 3rd of October was determined in the Unification Treaty almost one year later.

Do you have any fun facts about National Holidays in your country?